


Drummer boy

by punk_circle_pc



Category: Phantom of the Opera - Lloyd Webber, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - Phantom of the Opera Fusion, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-27 14:28:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10025531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punk_circle_pc/pseuds/punk_circle_pc
Summary: Josh, hounded by his father to take an interest in jazz music like his family before him, is coached by a strange voice in the Jazz venue his dad's band frequently plays at. Josh is conflicted and confused to find the man behind the voice.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay this is basically phantom of the opera but replace it with Josh and Tyler and remove the third party from the story.
> 
> Please let me know if this isn't trash and if I should keep going.

Josh sighed as he leaned against the wall of the stage in the large venue. His father's band was setting up, and he really didn't want to be here. He wanted to be at home, playing with his new drum set. Today was Josh’s first day back, since the last time his dad forced him to go stay with him for a few days at this venue, The Speakeasy. He had done so each time his band had the chance to play at the historic venue, since his father became a patron to the venue for the past 10 years. It was a way to “teach him the family trade”, even though Josh had told him time and time again he wasn't interested in jazz music. He wanted to be a drummer in a rock band.

Suddenly everyone was arguing with one another. Josh couldn't make out any sentences, but he'd heard "trumpet" and "not here" and notice one of the trumpet players was actually missing. 

"Guys!" the bari sax player, Debby, shouted. "Josh can do it." Josh was taken by surprise. No, Josh could not do it, he thought.

Sure, Josh could play the trumpet. He had a means of learning to play the trumpet very well. That didn't mean he wanted to do it in this jazz band. 

"Joshua? Joshua is just a stupid delinquent drummer boy, he could never replace our lead trumpet." One of the other trumpet players said, offended. 

"Sure he can! He's been having lessons." Debby insisted. Josh blushed at the thought of the voice giving him lessons in his head behind the scenes of his father’s jazz band. No one knew who was giving him lessons. Not even his best friend, Debby, knew. She would think Josh was mad.

She ran over to Josh and handed him the trumpet Josh had set to the side a few minutes earlier. "Listen! Show them what you can do Josh." 

He really, really didn't want to. "Do I have to?" He asked her quietly. She gave him a look that said both "yes you do" and "why are you like this". He glanced at his father, who gave him nothing more than a curious look. Josh ran a quick scale on the trumpet to get a feel for it before playing one of the only songs he had enjoyed learning on the trumpet. He closed his eyes and focused on breathing at the right times and sliding notes together correctly, and before he knew it, the song was finished.

Everyone looked impressed. He didn't think he was that good. 

And that was that. He was playing in the concert tonight.


	2. Chapter 2

Josh was escorted to the quarters he normally stayed in on the occasions, of which he was very familiar. He was given sheet music of what he was to play that night, and left alone with his trumpet. He sighed and decided to try the hardest pieces first. 

After a few notes Josh heard the walls humming along with him. He heard low chuckling and by the time he finished with the first half of the song he heard full out laughing. It sounded joyful. "I'm happy to hear you're playing tonight," the voice whispered. "You're perfect." Josh blushed to himself at the voice, thinking he had heard all of it in his head. He must have been insane to be hearing this voice that no one else knew about.

Josh sighed and continued playing. He might be good at the instrument, but that didn't mean he liked it.

~

Josh glanced out of the curtains. The venue was absolutely packed. The venue managers were freaking out and talking exasperatedly. "Just shove them in box five!" One of them shouted, angry. 

"Box five! Are you mad? Do you recall what happened last time we put guests in box five?" The other manager looked shocked. He sighed and flew his hands up into the air, yelling as he walked away, the other manager tailing behind him.

Josh didn't know what that was about. He looked out and glanced up at box five, to the left of the stage, completely empty. He shrugged it off.

When the band went out, Josh took his spot on the left of the stage, squished between another trumpet and a trombone player. He felt cramped, but he could still play. The drums signaled everyone's cue, and the band was off. The music poured over the venue, loud brass and honking saxophones belting out jazz. 

Josh glanced up at box five on between songs. He saw a man there. He couldn't make out a face, or anything really, but he saw the man there. Watching.

Josh couldn't think straight throughout the rest of the concert.


	3. Chapter 3

Josh was back in his room, ready to lay down in bed and finally crash. He heard the phantom laugh that came along with his playing. "Excellent," he heard the voice call at him. He set his trumpet down and looked into the mirror. Except he wasn't the only one he saw in the glass.

Josh whipped around and saw no one. The man must have been actually inside the mirror. "I am your angel of music," the voice sang to him, the man reaching out to touch the other side of the mirror. Josh pushed at the glass and found that it would slide to the side, and revealed a silhouette wearing all black; all the way from his combat-looking boots to his flowing cape. Josh was in awe.

"You're... A man?" Josh asked. 

"I may look it, but I am no man." He said. Josh new the voice. The voice that instructed him on the trumpet for hours on end in his head. A voice Josh had become very fond of. 

The man reached out for Josh's hand and led him down the narrow passage behind the mirror, grabbing a torch off the wall. The man in front of him was humming quietly, looking back at Josh occasionally; Josh couldn't make out his face, it was too dark. "Who are you?" He asked the man hesitantly. They halted, and the dark figure leaned in really close to whisper in Josh’s ear.

"I am your darkest dream. Your deepest fantasy." The man breathed, barely audible. Josh was intoxicated by the deep feeling of infatuation he held for this strange man. He glanced back once more, and Josh had his breath taken away by seeing the glowing red of his instructor's eyes. 

"What do I call you?" Josh asked him.

"Call me Tyler." 

Tyler led Josh out of the narrow passageway and down multiple curving flights of stairs, deep into the earth. A rusted gate emerged from the darkness, and Tyler threw it up, continuing to lead Josh deeper. The ground was wet, it was dark, and Josh was starting to lose the wow factor and was getting a little frightened. 

"Where are we?" Josh asked, fearful of the response he would get.

"I'll show you." Tyler said, stopping to hold the torch up to a candle. Once it was lit, it set off a chain reaction; the flame jumped from candle to candle, and soon hundreds of candles were lit all around the vast stone room. The walls were draped in red curtains and there were mirrors strewn about; there was a wonderfully fancy bed in one corner and many musical instruments in the other. 

"Josh," Tyler started, "I am the best musician this world has seen. I have composed so many symphonies, under so many names. And I waited. For you." Tyler was pacing, and ran his hand over the keys of the grand piano. Josh didn't know whether to stay glued to the spot or follow behind, so he stayed put. 

Tyler whipped around. "I knew someone like you would come around, Josh. I knew you would." This was the first good look Josh had gotten of Tyler's face. He was dark skinned in the dim lighting, bright red eyes tearing into him from across the room. "I need you to stay with me." 

Josh was at a loss for words. What did he mean?

"What... Why...?" He stammered, staring at the man in black in front of him. Tyler walked up and took Josh's hands in his own gloved ones. 

"I need you to give my music meaning. I need you to love me, Josh. Forget everything. Stay with me. Forget the life you had before." He hesitated a moment, looking Josh right in the eyes, before mumbling, “It’s all I ask of you. For all I’ve done.”

Josh was shocked into silence.

Tyler continued. "I have contributed to the most prestigious music of the world. All the the musicians I have coached can't compare to you, Josh, and your beauty and grace. I need you."

"You can't just take me down here and make me your prisoner!" Josh cried. He began to panic, thinking about living in this dungeon-like cave for the rest of his life. 

"Give in to your darkest dreams, Josh, stay with me. I can give you everything." 

"I need you to escort me out." 

"Josh-"

"Please. Let me back upstairs." Tyler swallowed and stared at Josh for a minute. 

"Alright then." Tyler wrung his hands together and briskly walked out through the gates in which they came, frustratedly throwing his cape onto the ground before leaving Josh up the multiple flights of stairs, and stopped at the narrow passageway. Josh continued forward, but when he looked back, he found himself alone.

~

The song was curious. It was angry. It was sad. Tyler made sure he carefully wrote every note in on the blank staff, trying not to think as he did so.

The song was too beautifully intricate, and Tyler couldn’t stop thinking about Josh. He kept trying to play the perfect ending to the ballad, but each attempt ended with more frustration. Tyler eventually slammed his hands on the keys of the grand piano and laid his head in his hands. Years, he had been waiting. Decades. Centuries, he had been patient in the cellars of his music hall for someone like Josh to mentor and trust. Someone like Josh to keep for himself and make him whole again.


End file.
